Understanding Counters Hate
by Quincy80
Summary: Naruto is full of strong and intelligent characters. What if they followed up on their promises to look after the title character? It might look something like this.


Understanding Counters Hate

A Naruto Fan Fiction

The Sandaime Hokage picked the child up and asked "GamaBunta, could you please set us down."

Without a word the old toad boss held a webbed hand to his head and gently lowered the old man and the literally wet behind the ears child down to the ground.

"Thank you for your efforts on our behalf", said the once again Hokage.

Nursing the fresh wound on his left eye, the summon replied "Take care of that child Monkey Man. I'd like to meet him again" and dispersed without waiting for an answer.

Tired beyond his even his considerable years the aged leader started to take command of the scene. "Dog find a mid wife send her to Mina..", he trailed off sadly, "I mean my office. Secure a pot and seal it into a scroll. Take it and wait for me in my office. Hawk, take Bear, Cat, Swan and any Chunin or Jounin who know water jutsu or have a strong fire affinity. Have them split up and either burn out of douse any fires in or around the village. Shikaku take your team mates and track down the surviving council members, especially the civilian members. Have them meet in the council chambers in an hour. Jiraiya organize the rest. Have the earth users set up walls for temporary shelters and send the others to the supply depots and bring out all the tents and tarps we have. I'll expect you beside me at the council meeting, so hurry. Eagle, send to the Hospital and get the Medic Nin here. Badger, stabilize those you can and set up triage. Set to it everyone." The Ninja split up and wearily started on their assigned tasks

Lost in thought, the Sandaime Hokage set off to his office. 'The rumours will be across the village by sun up. I need to take care of this before hate sets in.'

A Hour Later In The Council Chambers.

Sarutobi voice cut thought the murmurs "Is everyone alive here?" Seeing no answer he decided to move on. "For those who are not aware of what has happened we were attacked by Kyuubi no Kitsune, the greatest of the Biju. Large portions of our ninja force were lost in an effort to keep the village from being overrun. Once everything was proven the Yondaime enacted a plan of the last resort. He sacrificed his life in order to seal the beast into this child", he paused and pointed to the child being rocked by the midwife and then spoke over the outburst of talking, "Uzumaki Naruto". This turned the child into what is termed a jinchuriki in violation on the Shodaime's law." The murmur quickly grew into a roar. Shouting into the room Hiruzen Sarutobi said "I move to make this the first order of business and open the floor to suggestions on what to do with the child." At his side his former student Jiraiya looked shocked at his actions but he waved him down.

Once the uproar died down enough for a voice to be distinguishable Uchiha Fugaku yelled out,"The monster should be put to death. We cannot allow such a threat to the village to survive." A good portion of the council shouted out their support, including most of the civilians, though a few notable faces, such as those of some of the major clan heads showed disgust for murder of a new born.

Another voice made its self known as Danzo proclaimed "Give the demon spawn to me. I will make out of it a warrior who will guarantee the supremacy of the Leaf for another generation." Though there was no out pouring of support for the idea a few seemed to agree and others seemed a little uncertain.

Sarutobi gave a few moments waiting for other ideas and then a few more for the council to divide itself among the two suggestions before he spoke again. "I'm afraid neither of those are good ideas and I will explain my reasoning. First I will cover a little of the fundamentals of sealing for the civilians among the council who know little of the art." Seizing the initiative with the Hokage's authority to speak uninterrupted he accepted a scroll from the ANBU wearing a Dog mask. Quickly opening it for everyone to see he continued, "This is a simple sealing scroll. It allows a user to send an object or several objects to an extra dimensional storage space. This one holds a pot." Setting it on to a table he channelled chakra into it. Sure enough a pot emerged. The Shinobi on the council looked scornful as the simplistic explanation but did not interrupt. "The scroll is not a pot, but the pot can be held within it." Taking a pitcher of water from a nearby table he poured it into the pot. "This water is not a pot but water can be held within it." Most of the faces now sported sneers. "This child is not a demon, but a demon is sealed within it."

The council began shouting immediately but the Hokage refused to be stopped. "This is one of the main reasons why creating jinchuriki was outlawed by the Shodaime. People will almost inevitable treat the host as a demon. They are not Demons! They hold the demon outside of our world by force of will and their own bodies own energy. They gain some of the demons energy to supplement the seal as well as use it to their own ends. Usually when a jinchuriki dies the demon is freed. This is the true reason the First Hokage divided the Biju amongst the Elemental nations. He made it seem a gesture of good will politically, as we teach in the schools, but in truth his children did not inherit his ability to tame and restrain them. No one in the world shared his ability to tame them so he scattered them amongst the nations so that when they inevitably escaped and rampaged it was not within our borders!" The Council had settled into a shocked silence. "This is why executing the child is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!"

"Next is will, the child will eventually need to deny the Kyuubi its attempts at freedom. In time it will speak to him. Now, the Yondaime was an unrivalled genius with seals and this seal was made from the strongest such seal we have on record combined with a forbidden technique in which the user sacrifices his immortal soul to the Shinigami. In theory this is the best seal imaginable and will take the demon into the afterlife with the child upon his death. It is so strong it will take active effort on behalf of its host to free it. Unfortunately, as Jiraiya, Minato's teacher, will confirm not even the Yondaime can make every seal function properly on the first attempt and there is no way he could practice this. As it is confining the Kyuubi, a feat that has never before been accomplished, we can assume it is acting at least partially as intended, but we cannot take the risk killing him now. With time little Naruto's will and soul will grow and his ability to drag it kicking and screaming into the afterlife will increase."

"Further, little Naruto has lost more to this little beast than any one of us and there has every reason to resist it's demands. His father was lost today in fighting it, his mother died in childbirth partly due to the it's far reaching poisionous miasma and the resulting chaos, his mother's entire clan was lost to it's rampage in Whirlpool country twenty years past. His father was an orphan, so there is no family to be there for him, his parents house was confirmed destroyed and he has no inheritance left to him. He lost everything the very day he was born to the Kyuubi. His parents were able ninja and noted as being both nice and strong of will. Only a young child could survive the sealing and adapt to hold it within and for these reasons he was the one chosen as the best possible candidate. So long as he is treated well it is reasonable to assume he will grow up to be similar to them and surely it is desirable for us to have a kind demon host. For these reasons I expect the population, both civilian and ninja, to treat him well."

"This leads to why I'm also rejecting Danzo's suggestion. Danzo what was the rate of mental illines among your former Root agents and what was the average career length?"

Danzo suppressed a wince and knowing that the Hokage already knew the answer replied "1 out of 3 agents over the course of their term of service and 5 years."

The Hokage continued with his point "This is why it is an even worse idea than execution. With that we have at least the chance that the seal will function this early. Recruits trained from a young age are even more emotionless and more prone to insanity even without a demon whispering in their ear than the average Root or ANBU agent and it is likely we would be the target of his wrath should this come to pass. We want him to be mentally healthy and have positive emotions toward us. Does anyone not feel that these are not valid points?"

Nobody spoke up. Most agreed with them and those with hidden agendas figured this was not a wise way to advance those same agendas.

Sarutobi stated "Then I will take the child into my own home. Once he is of age I will support his entrance to the Shinobi Academy that he may follow in his family tradition, harden his will and learn to use his strength to protect the village. Jinchuriki receive some traits from their beast. This is to be expected and is not cause for alarm. He is already showing whisker marks and we should not be surprised if he shows some of a kitsune's fondness for mischief, endless energy, unequaled endurance and perhaps even a desire to hunt rabbits."

"Let everyone you know what has been said here today. Effective the day after tomorrow the fact that Uzumaki Naruto is a jinchuriki is an S-class secret and exposing it to any not already aware of it is punishable as treason. The only exceptions being him, myself, any succeeding Hokages and anyone delegated by the office of the Hokage until it's declassification. This is to prevent other nations from finding out as well as to prevent younger children from using it to provoke him. If there are no objections I will postpone further business until noon tomorrow that we may tend to our own affairs and catch a few hours rest."

After the body had broken up Jiraiya commented "That was masterful sensei, who knows what they might have done if you hadn't convinced them it was in their best interest to treat him well."

"Well, you don't become known as 'The Professor' without being able to get a point across." The Hokage turned to Dog-mask "Take those two to my estate and guard them. I expect you to play a role in his life in the future as well Kakashi" and then to Jiraiya "This will give you a reason to return to Konoha more often. Just don't' take your godson with you to peak at women in the hot springs. Anyway, we all still have plenty of work to do before we rest tonight so let's start now."

Five Hours Later:

Hard eyes were hidden by his ANBU mask as the infamous Copy Nin observed the latest pile of moaning bodies. He had lost far too much in service to his village to allow any more. Civilians or ninja, Konoha or not, anyone attempting to harm his martyred sensei's only child would have to do it over his still twitching corpse.

Summoning one of the hounds depicted on his mask he sent it to the nearest emergency clinic to notify them that there were more injured near the Sarutobi Compound. He radioed his clone sentries to make sure everything was still quiet.

Deep in his slumbers, little Naruto cuddled a little closer to Pakkun.

The Next Day at Lunch:

Sarutobi Asuma leant forward to accept the bowl of ramen. "So I've heard it's like this. The kid's not the Demon but Yondaime-Sama trapped the demon inside him at the cost of his life. Eventually the demon will probably start whispering to the kid, ya know, trying to get him to kill everyone, and one of two things will happen. One's the kid thinks of all the people who've hurt him and thinks if I kill them they'll stop hurting me. The kid starts killing people left, right, and centre and eventually some kills him which'll release the beast. Two's the kid thinks of all the nice people he knows and wonders who'll push him on the swings if everyone is gone. So he decides the beast is full of crap and goes to the park."

One of the other Chunin on lunchbreak says "You know that makes a lot of sense. Who wants to put up with a demon all the time? If everyone is being a jerk to you then why go through the effort of protecting them?"

The other patrons of the ramen stand grunted in agreement and dug into their food.

Later That Night:

In one of the tent clinics a group of neighbourhood gossips were helping to take care of the injured.

A younger house wife brought up a new topic, "Have you heard how the Kyuubi was stopped? Apparently Yondaime-Sama sold his soul to trap it in a newborn."

A new girl they hadn't seen before today piped up "I've heard about that. Poor kid, not only did Kyuubi kill his entire clan in Whirlpool country, but he lost his parents last night too. Now he has to keep the demon imprisoned for the rest of his life."

"Poor dear," a third woman chipped in, "does anyone how that seal thing works?"

"Well you know Kimiko, that Haruno who works at the grocery store, she says it's kind of like the scrolls that ninja's use. Like how they carry things or make things disappear and then call them back."

"Haruno, is that the family with the pink hair?"

Under his henge as the new comer, Jiraiya thought 'Ha, no one does information warfare like a spymaster. I hope the other clones are doing this well.'

Six Years Later:

Naruto grabbed his newest friend's hand and pulled him out of the park and around to the nearby ice cream cart. "Ojii-san, you know how you said you'd give me a free ice cream once a month. Could you give it to Hiroshi-kun? He's an orphan and he's and a really bad day."

"Sure kid, here you go." Naruto handed it over with a thumbs up and his widest and sunniest grin.

Before he could walk away the ice cream vendor said "Hey Naruto! Good boys get one on the house."

Accepting it he shouted "Thanks mister!" and led the other boy to swings where Kiba was anxious to start playing.

Once they were out of earshot an old lady sitting on a park bench, who had retired just a few years before commented to her friend a lifelong resident "Isn't that the nicest boy. I should introduce him to my grandchildren the next time they visit." Her friend replied "Isn't he just? He's an orphan too you know but he's always so positive."

Over hearing the aged ice cream sales man chipped in "I asked him once why he gives away his ice cream and he told me 'Jiji says Hokages always do their best to look after all the villagers.'"

Author's Note:

This is mainly a reaction to the stupidity of the Narutoverse in their treatment of demon hosts capable of destroying cities as well as the inability of supposedly intelligent legendary ninja who allow their own citizens to abuse their friend's son.

I don't intend to take this past a one shot. If anyone wants to turn this into a longer story, you are quite welcome to. Just drop me a note and credit me in your author's notes and it's all good. I have bits of a second chapter but if I were to follow through and complete the story I think it would be beyond my ability and so would remain unfinished. Anyway it wouldn't be anything you hadn't seen a thousand times before.

Finally, this is the first fan fiction that I am posting so I appreciate any feedback or criticism. I hope you will keep it constructive.


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